This invention relates to devices for instructing in the game of bridge and to a method of and a device for dealing predetermined bridge hands to enable comparative scoring and instruction.
Tournament bridge play is conducted by random dealing a bridge deck of cards to four hands, and inserting each hand into four receptacles of a "duplicate board." Each player extracts his hand from the receptacle corresponding to his seat at the table (West, North, East, or South). The hands forming the deal are than bid and played in accordance with the rules of bridge. After each trick is played the player places the card, face down, in front of him. After the completion of play each player inserts the thirteen cards in front of him into the receptacle of the duplicate board from which it was removed. The purpose of this procedure is to allow replay of the same deal of four hands by other bridge partners (pairs), so that competitive scoring can be accomplished on the deal. The purpose of this competitive (or comparative) scoring is to ascertain the pair which can score the highest of all pairs playing the same set of hands, which maximizes the skill aspect of the game. Duplicate boards are used in tournaments at bridge clubs (called duplicate) or at home.
Other methods of comparative scoring for home use have been devised. An outside person has been used to make up special hands; special identifying marks have been placed on the backs of cards so that hands can be assembled so that each player only sees his own hand (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 3,428,323); each player has his own private deck of cards from which he assembles hands in accordance with instruction sheets that he receives (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 3,731,399 and No. 3,550,944); machines automatically deal out the hands (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 3,312,473); and the deck of cards prior to dealing the hands is assembled by predetermined inverse operational sequences so that by going through the operational sequences the predetermined hands are assembled (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 3,709,501). In addition, various instructional apparatus has been used (e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,863,362, 3,797,128, and 3,899,837) as well as the well-known technique, as in books on bridge, of supplying printed hands and analyses of bidding and playing alternatives for representative bridge hands.
Comparative scoring for the average player is desirable, not so much for competitive purposes, but stimulus to acquiring skills in the game. However, due to the requirement of special playing cards or elaborate or expensive equipment, comparative scoring has been limited in its use to the tournament or duplicate style of bridge.